DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
THE
BLESSED DAMOZEL
The blessed damozel
leaned out
From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled at even;
She had three lilies in her hand,
And the stars in her hair were seven.
Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,
No wrought flowers did adorn,
But a white rose of Mary's gift,
For a service meetly worn;
Her hair that lay along her back
Was yellow like ripe corn.
Herseemed she scarce had been a day
One of God's choristers;
The wonder was not yet quite gone
From that still look of hers;
Albeit, to them she left, her day
Had counted as ten years.
(To one, it is ten years of years.
. . . . . . . Yet now, and in this place,
Surely she lean'd o'er me — her hair
Fell all about my face . . . . . . . .
Nothing: the autumn fall of leaves.
The whole year sets apace.)
It was the rampart of God's house
That she was standing on;
By God built over the sheer depth
The which is Space begun;
So high, that looking downward thence
She scarce could see the sun.
It lies in Heaven, across the flood
Of ether, as a bridge.
Beneath, the tides of day and night
With flame and darkness ridge
The void, as low as where this earth
Spins like a fretful midge.
Heard hardly, some of her new friends
Amid their loving games
Spoke evermore among themselves
Their virginal chaste names;
And the souls mounting up to God,
Went by her like thin flames.
And still she bowed herself and stooped
Out of the circling charm;
Until her bosom must have made
The bar she lean'd on warm,
And the lilies lay as if asleep
Along her bended arm.
From the fix'd place of Heaven she saw
Time like a pulse shake fierce
Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove
Within the gulf to pierce
Its path; and now she spoke as when
The stars sang in their spheres.
The sun was gone now; the curled moon
Was like a little feather
Fluttering far down the gulf; and now
She spoke through the still weather.
Her voice was like the voice the stars
Had when they sang together.
"I wish that he were come to me,
For he will come," she said.
"Have I not prayed in Heaven? — on earth,
Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd?
Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
And shall I feel afraid?
"When round his head the aureole
And he is clothed in white,
I'll take his hand and go with him
To the deep wells of light;
We will step down as to a stream,
And bathe there in God's sight.
"We two will stand beside that shrine,
Occult, withheld, untrod,
Whose lamps are stirred continually
With prayer sent up to God;
And see our old prayers, granted, melt
Each like a little cloud.
"We two will lie i' the shadow of
That living mystic tree,
Within whose secret growth the Dove
Is sometimes felt to be,
While every leaf that His plumes touch
Saith His Name audibly.
"And I myself will teach to him,
I myself, lying so,
The songs I sing here; which his voice
Shall pause in, hushed and slow,
And find some knowledge at each pause,
Or some new thing to know."
(Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st!
Yea, one wast thou with me
That once of old. But shall God lift
To endless unity
The soul whose likeness with thy soul
Was but its love for thee?)
"We two," she said, "will seek the groves
Where the lady Mary is,
With her five handmaidens, whose names
Are five sweet symphonies,
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
Margaret, and Rosalys.
"Circlewise sit they, with bound locks
And foreheads garlanded;
Into the fine cloth white like flame
Weaving the golden thread,
To fashion the birth-robes for them
Who are just born, being dead.
"He shall fear, haply, and be dumb:
Then I will lay my cheek
To his, and tell about our love,
Not once abashed or weak:
And the dear Mother will approve
My pride, and let me speak.
"Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,
To Him round whom all souls
Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads
Bowed with their aureoles:
And angels meeting us shall sing
To their citherns and citoles.
"There will I ask of Christ the Lord
Thus much for him and me: —
Only to live as once on earth
With Love, — only to be
As then awhile, for ever now
Together, I and he."
She gazed and listened and then said,
Less sad of speech than mild, —
"All this is when he comes." She ceased.
The light thrilled towards her, fill'd
With angels in strong level flight.
Her eyes prayed, and she smiled.
(I saw her smile.) But soon their path
Was vague in distant spheres:
And then she cast her arms along
The golden barriers,
And laid her face between her hands,
And wept. (I heard her tears.)
Source: http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/victorian/topic_3/damozel.htm
Source: http://www.abcgallery.com/R/rossetti/rossetti45.html
Dante
Gabriel Rossetti elaborates a poem and a picture that show the story of the
Blessed Damozel.
In
the poem, Dante Gabriel Rossetti presents us a woman, the Blessed Damozel, who
is in God’s house. And from that place, she looks the world, where her lover is
living into.
In
the first three stanzas Dante describes how The Damozel is, in fact, Dante is
describing the picture. After that, the author uses direct quotations; Rossetti
introduces the voice of the most important character of this poem. Talking with
the stars, Damozel expresses her melancholy and she wishes that her lover were
with her, but also she feels worried because she is afraid of her lover’s
destiny. She hopes that her lover had prayed so as to go to Heaven and not to
Hell. And thus, her life in God’s house will be a life of plenty anxiety until
she will be living with her lover again. She only can imagine how that
long-awaited moment would be, when she will meet her lover in Heaven. He would
appear clothed in white (line 88),
she would take his hand (line 89);
they would lie in the shadow of that living mystic tree (lines 79 to 80); she would teach to him her songs (lines 85 to 87); and when he feared, and
would be mud, she would tell him about their love (lines 109 to 111). And finally, she would ask Christ Lord if they
could live on Earth again (lines 121 to
123). But all of this is if he comes to Heaven… Finally, in spite of her
smile at the angels, she expressed her sorrow and she started to cry.
As
far as the structure of the poem is concerned, we observe that “The Blessed
Damozel” is divided into twenty-three stanzas, each one with six lines.
Rossetti uses the
brackets in the stanza fourth, sixteenth, and twenty-third not only to clarify
certain elements or expressions of the poem, but also to add a statement that
make this story true, such as in the line 133 “I saw her smile” and in the line
“I heard her tears”. With these statements we consider that Rossetti is a real
witness of Damozel´s anxiety.
If
we look at the painting, the first thing that impresses us and what we look at
is the centre of the picture, where Damozel is. Rossetti tried to make her the
most important element of the painting and if we can see, above Damozel, the
light starts to reduce its intensity until the last image, that is to say,
Damozel´s lover, who is in the earth. If we link to this picture with the poem,
this use of light is perhaps because Damozel is the protagonist of the poem and
her lover does not appear as a character in the poem. That’s why; Rossetti
painted that part darker than the rest of the painting.
Personally
I think that this picture is divided into three parts. The first part would be
divided into two parts; Damozel´s image and her thoughts, where she and her
lover are kissing and embracing each other. These images of the lovers are
connected to Damozel thanks to Damozel´s white scarf. Rossetti painted this
scarf as if it was moved by the air and the extreme of the scarf directs us up
the picture. But if we stop and look carefully that extreme of the scarf, we
can imagine the image of two hands. This image would represent the lovers’
unity and maybe their future meeting. Perhaps those hands are the reason why the
Damozel holds her hands and his lover also holds his hands.
The second part of the
picture would be the image of her lover who is in the dark (or maybe he is
lying in the shadow of that living mystic tree, as the poem says). Finally, the
third part would be the three angels who are under Damozel.
I consider this division of the painting because it is
clear that Damozel is the protagonist. Then if we look at her eyes, they direct
us to her lover, who is looking at the sky, this is to say, the Angels, and
finally they are looking Damozel.
To refer to the painting in general, the colour
predominant is red, which means love and love’s desire. As we can see, the hair
of all figures and their lips are red, as well as the flowers.
As far as the face of the characters is concerned, all
faces express sadness and seriousness. On one hand, the lovers are worried
because they are separated, so they show a nostalgic and a thoughtful
expression. But, on the other hand, the angels are worried about Damozel, they
feel sorry for her. In fact, the colour of their wings is the image that proves
their state of mind. They are black, so, Rossetti tries to intensify Damozel´s
anxiety.
Along
the poem we observe some images or elements, most of them appear in the painting
and others do not. For example, “the gold bar of Heaven” where Damozel leans
over; “The three white lilies in Damozel hands” and “the position of lying in
the shadow of that living mystic tree” is represented in the position of
Damozel´s lover. These three elements
(apart from Damozel´s and the Angels´ figures) are not only in the poem but
also in the painting. However, the poem says that “Damozel´s hair is yellow
like ripe corn” but in the painting her hair is red. What´s more the stars in
Damozel´s hair were seven in the poem, but in the picture there are six.
Another characteristic that has surprised me is the small figures of the
lovers, these are ten images, and they represent the ten stanzas of which
Damozel talks and they express the things she will do with her lover when they
will meet again.
Personally, I have been really sad, but sincerely I like
it. I am very happy of having done this work because I am very interested in
art and in watching paintings. So, I have enjoyed a lot doing this paper and
furthermore, it is the first time I compare a poem with a painting.
To
conclude, I really admire Dante Gabriel Rossetti for his numerous works: the
poems as much as paintings. “The Blessed Damozel” has moved me a lot, because
reading the poem and looking at the painting once and again I have finally felt
a type of anxiety and sadness because I have imagined that I could also live
Damozel´s story. And that’s why I have thought carefully about my life and I
consider that I couldn’t accept my love’s death because I could not live
without him. Thus I would prefer to die before, but it is not my choice. That’s
why we have to live each day as it were the last day, it is not necessary that
we argue with our family or with our Love, because it would be better to smile,
to kiss, to hug and not to cry, to shout, to fight and to be resentful and
LEARN to forget.
|
Reading
module 05: Dante Gabriel
Rossetti |
Academic year 2006 (May 2006)
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ana MŞ Pardillos Murillo
Universitat de Valčncia Press
mailto:aparmu@alumni.uv.es